In the Future Perfect

by Walter Abish

Book by Abish, Walter

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

113 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1977

About the author

Walter Abish was an American author of experimental novels and short stories.

At a young age, his family fled from the Nazis, traveling first to Italy and Nice before settling in Shanghai from 1940 to 1949. In 1949, they moved to Israel, where Abish served in the army and developed an interest in writing. He moved to the United States in 1957 and became an American citizen in 1960. Since 1975, Abish has taught at several eastern universities and colleges. Abish received the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1981 for his book How German Is It?. He has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.

Abish's work shows both imaginative and experimental elements. In Alphabetical Africa, for instance, the first chapter consists entirely of words beginning with the letter "A." In the second chapter, words beginning with "B" appear, and so on through the alphabet. In the Future Perfect is a collection of short stories where words are juxtaposed in unusual patterns.

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

There seems to be a cleave in Abish that equals into neat halves humanist and absolute sarcastic bastard, respectively. I’ll never be a fan of short stories or collections, but the thematic unity of the several contained here are delightfully, Abishly twined. The vibe is 1970s in the San Fernando Valley; bad men making worse pornography; the shuck and jive con of the Sixties utopia matured into decadent, coke-and-satin, plain shitty egocentrism. Oh: and the goings on of Mannix (yes, the same) as social cue and barometer of El Lay’s reptilian male population. Remember, I live here. Abish isn’t off the mark. Nor was Mannix.

Taken to the head as one scattered piece, this collection has the brilliance of a truly great horror anthology with all of the fantastical monsters and their explicit motions removed. As consequence, Abish demonstrates just how terrifying the nocturnal cityscape is while their shadows await their lords’ even darker returnings.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t know how to link to shit. Read my friend’s, Cody’s, review. I can’t add much more to it. I will add that it-at times- made me actually laugh, which is rare. Most of the times books that are “funny” just make you barely smile or think, “oh, that’s something I would do! The lovable scamp.”

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm surprised Abish is not a member of Oulipo because his stories vibe with the same kind of constrained playfulness: words are counted and focused in oblique ways. Alphabetical Africa is on my shelf waiting for me so that will be next, I guess. Definitely my favourite eye-patched/safari-suited author.

[Evan Pincus · Rating 3 out of 5]

More Abish - more communication breakdowns, desert wanderings, aphorisms, observations on American culture and fascism, and, of course, women's legs. Somewhere hiding in there is a great writer.

[Annabelle]

hmmmm. much of this went over my head which is only really my fault. didn’t put in the work to Get some of them. but really liked the writing generally and loved the first story which makes me want to read how german is it in full

[Seán Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goodreads lists this edition as published in 1997...
The edition I read (1st ed./hardback, New Editions publ.) had the above dust-jacket, but I read it while hanging out in Southern California, summer 1982 or 1983...

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a long time ago and really liked it ... the resonance of the idea of "it will have been" with the stories themselves was unique.

[🐴 🍖]

abandoned i'm sorry to report. odd for a work full to bursting with language games to be bereft of the least lil bit of jouissance. i mean the back flap cites coover, barthelme, barth, &c., and sure there's a kinship but whereas w/ them you can tell they're having fun (even if it doesn't always translate to fun for the reader), this just felt like the work of somebody for whom writing is a grim duty. it was like playing risk w/ somebody who's extremely serious about the game risk. i'm too old to be bickering over the strategic value of yakutsk man